Jaffer, Agarkar star in Mumbai's win

Mumbai: Wasim Jaffer's century and Iqbal Abdullah's terrific all-round performance piloted Mumbai to a hard-fought eight run victory over Gujarat in the West Zone Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day cricket tournament.

Former captain Jaffer, batting at no.3, slammed 104 in 119 balls with 10 fours and a six even as Mumbai lost wickets regularly before mustering 233 for 9 after being put into bat. Jaffer was given good support by Abdulla who made 34 in 44 balls and also rallied Mumbai from a precarious 111 for 7 to 180 with his former captain.

Later Abdulla and paceman Ajit Agarkar grabbed three wickets each to arrest Gujarat's march at 225 for 9, helping Mumbai to their second win on the trot in as many days.

Gujarat were sailing along merrily at one stage when openers Avi Barot and Priyank Panchal, who scored individual half centuries, put on 127 runs in just over 31 overs before Mumbai pulled the game around.

Abdulla dismissed Barot to break the partnership after which Gujarat lost four more wickets to be 155 for 5 before a revival placed them one short of 200. But the fall of three more wickets in quick succession put paid to their hopes.

Mumbai: A valiant unbeaten 98 by debutante Chirag Jani went in vain as Maharashtra defeated Saurashtra by two runs.

Chasing 311 runs for a victory, Saurashtra despite a brilliant century by opener Sagar Jogiyani 106 were reduced to 176-6 in 32 overs.

However, Saurashtra were soon reduced to 232-9 and the best the team was hoping from the last-wicket pair of Jani and Siddharth Trivedi 4 not out (9b) was that they would prevent Maharashtra from taking a bonus point.

However, Jani had other ideas as he launched a blitzkrieg during his 67-ball knock, that included 10 fours and six sixes and took the Maharashtra attack, weakened in the absence of injured speedster Samad Fallah who limped away after bowling two overs, completely by surprise.

When last man Trivedi walked out to bat, Saurashtra needed 79 runs to win in 7.3 overs and the equation changed to 31 off two overs.

For Maharashtra, young left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar was the most successful bowler as he took three wickets while giving away only 44 runs in his quota of ten overs.